DESCRIPTION:
Cécile Merguillier was born in Paris on 11 November 1861. She graduated from the Paris Conservatory (class Archainbaud), where in 1879 she won a 2nd accessit and in 1880 a 1st Prize in singing and has the distinction of being the oldest soprano graduate to make recordings. Although Rose Caron was four years Merguillier's senior, Caron did not graduate until 1882. Merguillier also has the distinction of being one of the last (and the only one to record) of those agile, full-voiced sopranos légers so popular throughout 19th century French opera. Caroline Miolan-Carvalho, the "monster" of the period, was still performing at the Opéra and Opéra-Comique during the time Merguillier was in training and until a year after her debut. Eugène Archainbaud (born 1833, assuming Chair I in 1879, retiring in 1899) was one of the Conservatory's less successful voice teachers. Merguillier was his first prize-winning student; his other students, who have left us records, were Amédée Sujol (1882), Paul Daraux (1886), Jean Vallier (1888) and Louis Azéma (1897).

Merguillier made her debut at the Opéra-Comique on 28 December 1881 in Adam's Le Toréador. Merguillier was a lead soprano léger at the Opéra-Comique from her debut in 1881 until 1888. She returned for the 1891 and 1892 as well as the 1897 and 1898 seasons. She also performed for the season 1888-89 at La Monnaie, in 1895 in Moscow, and in the intervening years through the French provinces. She was the Philine in that tragic performance of Mignon on 25 May 1887 when the old Opéra-Comique burned to the ground. The troupe was homeless until October 1887 when the old Théâtre Lyrique (later named the Théâtre du Châtelet) became their new home, and Merguillier left. She appeared in a benefit concert at the Opéra in 1892. In 1902 she appeared again in a benefit concert, dubbed by Stoullig un festival monstre, held for the musicians' retirement fund of the Opéra-Comique. 127 former and current soloists appeared (from Capoul to Sibyl Sanderson to Mary Garden) accompanied by seven different conductors: Bruneau, Charpentier, Luigini, Marty, Messager, Massenet and Saint-Saëns.

While Merguillier's voice was fuller (one might almost say brasher) than Calvé's, they shared many vocal traits in common: a fully developed chest "register," a perfectly integrated scale to above the staff and a slightly pinched "heady" top. They were both part of the "old school" of French singing which, ten years later, was considered old-fashioned and no longer taught. Even though she was more or less in retirement when she made her recordings, the recordings themselves are of more than passing historical interest. Cécile Merguillier died in December 1938.

© Victor Girard, 1998


C'est finalement sur le tard, à l'âge de 42 ans que Cécile Merguillier consentira à enregistrer des cylindres, d'abord pour Pathé-Frères en 1903 et pour Edison en 1905. Il faut noter ici l'exceptionnelle qualité des enregistrements Edison dont la publicité vantait "moulés sur or". Le son est chaleureux et la voix cristalline de Cécile Merguillier sort merveilleusement bien restituée, chose rare à l'époque en ces débuts de l'enregistrement pour les voix de femme qui souvent passaient mal.



Artiste trop discrète dans les médias, nous ne savons rien de sa vie intime. Bien que dotée d'un physique ingrat (elle louchait), elle fut une immense cantatrice et elle ouvrit la porte aux générations futures des Lily Pons ou des Tétrazini - souvent ridiculisées par la suite.

Son étonnante virtuosité vocale la rendit célèbre en Europe et popularisa des airs devenus aujourd'hui connus du grand public. Elle fréquenta les plus grands artistes qui firent la joie des théâtres français : Soulacroix, Morlet, Fugère, Melchissédec etc.

Cécile Merguillier décèda à Paris en décembre 1938.